No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 889 



of twelve (onts or over, lu Ma.v, ISiJl), (iiiolalioii.s l.v ilic IN-imsyl- 

 vania Eailroad were: From New York, !$2.±0; from IMiiladelpbia, 

 fl.70; and from Baltimore, fLHo; mean rate from tlu* lliree points, 

 11.88. 



For the present year and under similar eojiditions of shipment, 

 quotations by the Pennsylvania Railroad were: From New York, 

 12.40; from Philadelphia, fl.DO, and from lialtimore, Md., $1.75; 

 mean rate from the three points, |2.02. 



FERTILIZER ANALYSES. JANUARY 1 TO ANGUST 1. Um. 



Since January 1, 19U3, there have been received from authorized 

 sampling agents eleven hundred and twenty-six fertilizer samples, 

 of which five hundred and forty-two were subjected to analysis 

 the remainder being rejected either because they represented brands 

 analyzed last season, or because they were regarded as not certainly 

 representative of the brand v.'hose name they bore. When two or 

 more samples representing the same brand were received, equal 

 portions from the several samples were united and the composite 

 sample was subjected to analysis. 



The samples group themselves as follows, 36.5 complete fertilizers, 

 furnishing phosphoric acid, potash and nitrogen; 3 dissolved bones, 

 furnishing phosphoric acid and nitrogen; 82 rock-and-potash fer- 

 tilizers, furnishing phosphoric acid and potash; 56 acidulated rock 

 phosphates, furnishing phosphoric acid only; 27 ground bones, fur- 

 nishing phosphoric acid and nitrogen; 5 miscellaneous fertilizers, 

 which group includes potash salts, nitrate of soda and other sub- 

 stances not properly classified under the foregoing heads. 



The determinations to which a complete fertilizer is subjected are 

 as follows: (1) Moisture, useful for the comparison of analyses, for 

 indication of dry condition and fitness for drilling, and also of the 

 conditions under which the fertilizer was kept in the warehouse. (2) 

 Phosphoric acid — total, that portion soluble in water, and of the 

 residue, that portion not soluble in warm ammonium citrate solution 

 (a solution supposed to represent the action of plant roots upon 

 the fertilizer), which is assumed to have little immediate food value. 

 By difference, it is easy to compute the so-called "reverted" acid, 

 which is the portion insoluble in water but soluble in the citrate. 

 The sum of the soluble and reverted is commonly called the "avail- 

 able" phosphoric acid. (3) Potash soluble in water, — most of that 

 57 



